


Cut him up, Boy

by Aesoleucian



Category: Dangan Ronpa, SDR2
Genre: Gen, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, vague violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 13:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesoleucian/pseuds/Aesoleucian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes when you have bad dreams you need someone to hold your hand and slap around the offending parties. Metaphorically.</p><p>(vague spoilers for up to the beginning of chapter 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cut him up, Boy

_Take him by the teeth_  
_Get him down on his knees_  
_With your hands all shaking_  
_That’ll teach him how to take it_

He can’t even remember how it started. A stupid argument. Komaeda always says stupid things, like he doesn’t realize they’re horrifying and make people want to run away or hit him.

Hinata hits him. He won’t stop smiling, and he won’t stop talking, and Hinata hits him again and again. Bruises form unnaturally quickly. He finds a knife in his hand. Komaeda is on the floor, laughing through a mouthful of blood. Komaeda is hanging limply by his wrists from thick rope. 

Hinata slices him open like a fish and the dripping blood is beautiful all over the floor. Komaeda is still laughing. Hinata leans in close and bites a large chunk of flesh out of his cheek.

Hinata wakes. For a moment he stares at his pillow and sheets, heart pounding, and then slowly he realizes that it wasn’t real. Shit. He’s never had such a vivid, violent dream before. He finds himself cold with sweat as he pushes the sheets away and lets his feet fall to the floor, so he towels himself off before putting on a shirt.

He finds it necessary to wash his face, like he’s trying to wash off the dream, and looks hard at himself in the mirror. He looks as he has always looked, but scared. With a sigh, he neatly folds up the hand towel and leaves his room, locking the door behind him.

Nanami’s room is dark, and why shouldn’t it be? He forgot to check the time, but it must be something like three in the morning. This is why it’s a surprise that, only a few seconds after his quiet knock, she opens the door slightly to peer out, pale face made paler by the blue-white light shining up from the DS in her hand.

She looks at him for half a minute, mouth open slightly and eyes vacant. Clearly he is going to have to say something. “Nanami. I, uh.” He feels ridiculous, coming to talk to her about a nightmare. What is she, his mother? “Can I come in?”

After a pause, she nods slightly, and opens the door just wide enough for him to slip through. It takes a little while for his eyes to adjust to the lack of moonlight, because she doesn’t flip the light switch. The room is only lit by the reflection of the game’s light off the ceiling.

“You look troubled,” she says, not so much patting the bed beside her as laying her hand there and then forgetting about it. She’s wearing cute pyjamas with cat’s paw print, completely unabashed. “I assume you wanted to talk to me about that?”

He sits, and stares fixedly at his clasped hands between his knees. “It’s… it’s kind of stupid. I had a nightmare.” He takes her silence as attentiveness, since he can’t bring himself to glance over and see whether she’s playing the game or not. She hasn’t closed it, but maybe that’s just because otherwise it would be pitch black. “I got into an argument with Komaeda, and I hit him, and then… I guess I ended up… torturing him.” This last he says in the quietest mutter possible, hoping she didn’t hear and won’t ask. “I feel like some kind of monster.”

There’s a long silence, during which he just repeats the word _shit_ in his head about a hundred times, and then her warm hand is on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Hinata. Dreams don’t have very much to do with reality. Sometimes I dream I’m an astronaut exploring alien planets!” Does that actually have anything in common with his dream? “Sometimes I have to kill aliens, like in Galaga. In the dream it’s fun, like playing the game, but I watch them die and when I wake up it makes me sad.” Maybe a little. But it’s not like she dreamed she was a sadistic psychopath torturing her friends.

“I can’t understand exactly how you feel, but it makes sense.” What? “Since the first trial everyone’s been scared of Komaeda, and he is kind of crazy.”

He’s pretty sure she doesn’t understand how he feels at all. “Thanks, Nanami. I guess I feel a little better.” She’s quiet again, for probably a minute and a half. He wonders whether he should leave, but her hand is still on his shoulder. She's so warm, and even though she's tiny it feels somehow solid. Real.

Suddenly, she says, “This doesn’t have anything to do with real life, does it?”

He looks up for the first time, to see her watching him intently. “What do you mean?”

“Has he really been saying weird things? Is that why?”

He honestly hasn’t thought about it. “I don’t know… Komaeda pretty much always says weird things.” It feels like an evasion, because her words bring to mind a conversation (or a monologue, really) with Komaeda from yesterday. He was going on about how full of hope he was because of their friends’ deaths, and Hinata shouted that maybe they should tie him up again so he couldn’t annoy everyone all the time. Then he started doing that creepy self-abasing thing where he said he should be tied up and that he didn’t deserve to talk to someone as splendid as Hinata. There was something obscene about it, and it made Hinata want to take out his anger on something.

Instead he told Komaeda to fuck off again and went into his room. In the real world, of course, he would never hurt the kid, no matter how freaky he acted. He was like a stick that said annoying things, so fragile even at several centimeters taller than Hinata. The dream, then… might have been about that. He shudders.

\--

Hinata is quiet for a long time, which is a little bit suspicious. He looks like he’s thinking hard about something, and she can guess what it is. She really doesn’t blame him for not saying anything, since he seems pretty upset.

He leaves after striking up some awkward small talk, obviously both relieved to get out of his awkward position and somewhat calmer. At the door Nanami takes his hand and says with a smile, “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad you trust me this much.” He nods, a little red, and makes an overly formal bow. It’s kind of cute how he’s trying to pretend they’re just acquaintances.

Alone in her dark room, she realizes that she should probably get some sleep. Looking with a sigh at the DS, she saves, turns it off, and gets under the covers. Tomorrow she’ll have to talk to Komaeda.

\--

She finds Komaeda on the beach after breakfast, staring absently out at the waves. She stands behind him for several minutes before he says, “What a pleasure to have your company, Nanami!” She snaps out of a reverie to see that he hasn’t turned around. “To what do I owe the privilege to bask in your presence?”

“I want to talk to you about Hinata.” Now he turns, smudging his coat with wet sand. “Are you creeping him out on purpose?”

Komaeda laughs. “What a suggestion, Nanami! To think that I would have the presumption to believe I could truly affect the emotions of such an illustrious person!” She stares a thousand-meter stare through his face until he relents. “Yes, I am. You caught me! Of course, my attempts at deception are as transparent as my inferiority. I hope I can be forgiven for taking some small amusement in such things. Besides, feelings like that will only motivate our Hinata to greater heights of detective work!”

She gives him the stare again, and even he begins to look somewhat uncomfortable under his cheerful smile. After she feels he’s unnerved enough, she says, “You should stop. You’re giving him nightmares.” Komaeda only raises his eyebrows, looking almost delighted. Despite her vow to stay calm, Nanami begins to understand why Hinata wanted to hit this boy so much. 

“Ah, I’m so glad!” he says. “The hope he brings us will only shine stronger in his heart when he has to overcome such despair!” He rises to his feet, towering over her like an enormous dandelion. “Next time I see him, I’ll tell him to keep defeating his bad dreams as a shining example to us all. Thank you, Nanami!” He sounds so sincere as he takes his leave, and she thinks he’s humming as he walks back toward the hotel.

She runs after him, overtaking his long strides with some difficulty. “Komaeda!” He turns, smiling pleasantly. “You’re being a big baby. Stop it.”

For the first time his face registers surprise. “I’m only—”

“You’re making people sad and afraid in the name of happiness. You don’t do it because you think it will make people more hopeful, you do it because you think it’s funny.” She’s not entirely sure whether this is true (who can really understand Komaeda?) but it seems to have the intended effect.

“My apologies, Nanami.” He pastes a look of deep regret and contrition on his face, and bows low. “I will try to overcome my nature as a selfish worm.” She scowls after him as he strides off again. He’s not going to change anything, but she figures she should tell Hinata she tried her best.

\--

“I see what you mean,” she says, sliding into the seat next to him with her tray of food. He looks up, startled. “He’s trying to freak you out on purpose.”

“You, you went and talked to him?” Hinata’s voice is low and a little strained. 

“Yes. Did you know, he said he was glad when I told him he’s giving you nightmares!”

Hinata looks aghast, and that’s adorable too. “Why did you tell him about that? Are you trying to give him more incentive to be creepy?”

She shrugs with a rueful smile, twirling up noodles with her chopsticks. “I thought it might convince him to stop. Obviously I overestimated how much he cares about your well-being.”

Hinata hides his face in his hands with a loud sigh. “I’m sorry,” Nanami tells him. She chances a pat on the back, and he sags a little lower. “I didn’t tell him what the dream was actually about.”

“Thanks.” His voice is a little muffled, but he puts one of his hands over hers on his shoulder. “And, well. If you have any dreams about punching him, you can come talk to me.”

“I may just need to.” She smiles, and tries to eat her noodles left-handed without letting him notice. To her credit, it takes him about a minute and a half.

**Author's Note:**

> _Are you down in the face_   
>  _Do you need a little space_   
>  _When the radio crackles_   
>  _And the in-laws cackle...?_
> 
>  
> 
> \--all lyrics from "Culling of the Fold" by the Decemberists


End file.
